DIRECTED BY Ridley Scott STARRING Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Hatry Dean Stanton Opened October 31, Cert 15, 115 mins Scott's franchise-launching 1979 future-shocker is one of those rare, pure, primal films that works as both highbrow modern myth and trouser-soiling midnight movie.

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Dark, character-driven tale told from three angles

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Overdue reappraisal of mid-'60s Monk

OPENS NOVEMBER 14, CERT 15, 102 MINS Ann (Sarah Polley) is 23 and works as a night cleaner. She lives in a trailer home in her mother's backyard, along with two young daughters and an unemployed husband. She also, it turns out, has inoperable cancer, and a matter of months to live. And while on paper that might sound like Terms Of Endearment on a budget, this beautifully judged Canadian picture (produced by Pedro and Agustin Almodóvar) couldn't be further from the mawkishness of a Hollywood weepy. What lifts the film is the powerful, dignified performance from Polley.